the prostrate condition and subsequent muti- lexicons are uncert,,in which to choose. lation of their god, the people of Ashdorl Some give, "and the cmerods hid them- recognised in their affliction the hand, i. e. selves in them," in the sense of gnawing the power, or Jehovah, and determined to and burrowing into the flesh, i. e. they be- send aw11y the ark, the symbol of his ill- came cancerous. Others take the alternative omened presence among them. sense, and render, "and the emerods were Ver. 8.-The lords of the Philistines. burst upon them," i. e. became fissured and Philistia was governed by a council of five rent, and turned in to open sores. Another :princes, but whether they were elective or translation has been proposed, namely, " the hereditary in the several towns is by no tumours or emerods brake out upon them;" mee.ns clear. They are called "seranim,'' but as the verb, both in the Hebrew anrl tl,c from seren, "a hinge," just as the cardinals Syriac, is passive, this rendering can scarcely •of the Church of Rome take their name from be defended. Upon the whole, the most the Latin word cardo, which has the same probable sense is that the tumours buried meaning. There is no ground for connecting themselves deep in the flesh, and becoming the word with sar, " a prince." When thus incurable, ended in causing the death Ewald dhl so he probably forgot that the two of the sufferers. words begin with different letters - seren Vers. 10, 11.-The Ekronites cried out. with samech, and sar ,,ith shin. Seranim Convinced by this second and more fatal is the word constantly used of the lords of plague that the ark was the cause of their the Philistines (Josh. xiii. 3 ; J udgea iii. 3 ; punishment, the people ofEkron, when it was xvi. 5, 8, &c. ; 1 Chron. xii. 9), though after passed on to them from Gath, protested loudly being correctly so styled in 1 Sam. xxix. 2, against its presence. Compelled to receive they are popularly called in v~rs. 3, 4, 9, it until the lords of the Philistines could be sa1·im, "princes." Let the ark of the God of convened in council to decide upon its ul ti• Israel be carried about unto Gath. Unwill- mate destination, the plague broke out so ing to part with so signal a proof of their heavily among them that they were in utter victory, the lords of the Philistines determine dismay. For the rendering deadly de• to remove the ark to another locoJity, but struction is untenable. Literally the words thereby only made the miraculous nature of are, "a dismay of death ; " but in Hebrew what was taking place more evident to all. death added to a word of this sort simply Of Gath but little is known ; but Jerome cle- means "very great." So "terrors of death" scribes it as still a large village in his days, in Ps. 1v. 4 are very great terrors. In the and as situated near the border of Judrea, on next verse we learn that many ,li<l die, but the road from Eleuthel'Opolis to Gaza. the words- used here describe the men ta! Ver. 9. -And they had emerods in their agony and despair of the people as they saw aecret parts. The verb used here, sathar, is the ark, which had wrought elsewhere so found in Hebrew only in this place, but is great misery, brought unto them. of commoh occurrence in Syriac arid Arabic. Ver. 12.-The cry of the city went up to Its ordinary meaning in both these languages heaven. Not the word used in ver. 10, is to " cover," " conceal," and the A. V., where it is an outcry of indignatio11., but e. takinl! it in this sense, supposes that the boils cry for help, a cry or sorrow and distress. were nidien, and ·translates as above. But Though in ver. 10 Ekronites is in the plural, the root has a double meaning, nnd signifies yet in all that follows the singular is used. also " to destroy," though in this sense the "They have brought about the ark to me, to Arabic has o. slight difference in spelling, slay me and my people. . . . That it slay namely, shatara instead of satara. The old me not nnd my people." It is the prince of versions were evidently at o. loss in under- Ekron who, as the representative of the standing the meaning, though their render- people, expostulates with his fellow-rulers ings nre suggestive, except the Syriac, which for the w1:ong they are doing him. But translo.tes quite literally, but leaves thereby finnlly all join in his lamentation, and the the difficulty untouched of the twofold whole city, smitten by God's hand sends up meaning of the word, and the Syro-Arabic its prayer to heaven for mercy.
HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-5.-Foreshadowings. The facts given are-1. The Philistines, acting on polytheistic principles, place the ark in their heathen temple, thus ascribing to it Divine honour, and yet indicating its inferiority to Dagon. 2. During the night their god Dagon falls to the ground. 3. Supposing the fall to be the result of some unaccountable accident, they replace their god, and on the next day find him even broken to pieces. 4. The event is memorialised by the establishment of a super- stitious custom.- The supernatural and ordinary cYCnts connected with lsrael'11 10-l. L<'II. , •. 1-12..